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It has promised to scrap confusing ‘display until’ dates on fresh fruit and vegetables and will give customers food storage tips.

A study by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers earlier this year found up to half the food bought from supermarkets goes in the bin.

Experts blame our throwaway culture for the colossal waste as well as misleading sell-by dates and offers that encourage customers to buy too much.

Tesco has announced buy one get one free deals on large bags of salad will be scrapped to tackle food waste

Fifteen million tons of food are discarded each year, with households responsible for nearly half the waste, according to the Waste And Resources Action Programme (Wrap), a recycling quango.

Almost four million tons are thrown away despite being perfectly edible.

Tesco is now examining what happens to 25 more best-selling products, including free-range eggs, bacon, onions, and milk. In the first six months of this year, 28,500 tons of produce was binned at its stores and distribution centres.

Richard Swannell of Wrap said: ‘We welcome Tesco’s approach to tackling food waste across their whole supply chain, and by identifying the hot spots they can tackle these areas effectively.

‘Food waste is a global issue and collaborative action is essential if we are to successfully reduce food waste and reap the financial and environmental benefits of doing so.’

Other Tesco initiatives to limit waste include reducing the amount of baked goods on display and telling customers how to use stale bread.

The firm said it was involved in trials with apple growers to reduce pests and disease in orchards by use of natural predators. It said however that 27 per cent of fruit wastage happens at home.

Matt Simister, Tesco’s commercial director of group food, said: ‘We’ve all got a responsibility to tackle food waste and there is no quick-fix single solution.

‘Little changes can make a big difference, like storing fruit and vegetables in the right way.

READY MEALS GET BIGGER

Ready meals and snacks have ballooned in size in the past two decades, campaigners said yesterday.

The British Heart Foundation warned portions were out of control at a time when one in seven children and one in four adults is obese.

The charity compared the sizes of 245 current products against equivalents from 1993.

It found that shepherd’s pie ready meals have doubled in size, a portion of peanuts is 80 per cent larger and chicken curries are 53 per cent up.

Packets of crisps are 50 per cent bigger than 20 years ago.

The charity’s Simon Gillespie said: ‘When people are presented with more food, they eat more food.’

‘Families are wasting an estimated £700 a year and we want to help them keep that money in their pockets, rather than throwing it in the bin. We’re playing our part too and making changes to our processes and in store.

‘Ending multi-buy promotions on large packs of bagged salads is one way we can help, but this is just the start and we’ll be reviewing what else we can do. We’re working with our suppliers to try to cut waste at all stages of the journey from farm to fork.’

Instead of multi-buy promotions on large salads, Tesco will allow consumers to select a second different item at a discount, such as a cucumber or pepper.

‘Bogof’ deals took off in the 1990s as the big supermarkets fought for market share.

But in 2011 the Local Government Association called on retailers to stop them. Deals on products with a short shelf life, such as fruit and veg, were found to result in shoppers throwing away vast amounts of produce.

In its report released in January, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers said £1billion of food – from fresh fruit and veg to tinned and packet produce – is binned every year when still within its sell-by date.

The report claimed up to three quarters of vegetables grown in Britain end up never being eaten.